So I have a new desktop PC and my old desktop PC that was broken for some time, now revived and I want to make it a home server and selfhost various apps.

I’m running Debian Trixie and plan to run the same (but headless) on the server.

My old PC had a 1TB SATA SSD (one of the Samsung EVO models from around 2013/2014). It’s an old drive and it’s been in use probably for 8 years in total (initially as the system disk, then for local backup). The motherboard only has 1 m2 slot with PCIe x3.

My new PC has two 2TB nvmes, the high end Samsung 9100 PRO and Samsung 990 PRO. The first disk is my system disk so it stays. But the 990 currently is almost empty and used only for a local Restic backup. I over purchased, wasn’t sure which one to keep and my return window passed so both stayed.

I also have an external 2TB SSD on USB 3.

Now I have a few scenarios in mind and I’m having trouble making a decision. I need a 3-2-1 backup solution on both machines.

I won’t have too many services and won’t have much traffic.

I can put the 1TB SATA SSD in the server, make it the system disk. Then have the 2TB USB SSD for local backup. Or backup over SFTP to my desktop’s 990. The desktop PC stays as is with two nvme disks.

I can move the 990 PRO from my desktop PC to the server and make it the system disk. I’d use the SATA SSD in one computer and the USB SSD in the other one for local backup. My server won’t utilize 990’s speed because of PCIe x3 being the ceiling.

There are various combinations and I suffer from decision paralysis.

Re the backup, I currently do hourly local backups and daily cloud backups.

I’d rather not buy another disk due to how expensive they are.

I don’t have that much data, I won’t even use 1TB. I probably have less than 250GB counting all my documents, important files, ebooks, photos.

Any hints?

  • lemmyvore@feddit.nlEnglish
    1·
    14 hours ago

    Hetzner + a HDD backup would basically get you to 3-2-1.

    As a rule of thumb I’d keep the SSDs for live data and HDDs for backup.

    Hetzner supports multiple good backup tools so you have options, and their prices are decent.

    But please stick to Restic (or Borg) because they’re actually designed for backup and have built-in encryption, compression, deduplication, integrity, recovery etc. Don’t use “sync” tools like rsync.

    Please, please, please assume that any of the SSDs and HDDs and cloud storage can dissapear at any time. Sit down and run some scenarios on paper, see what you’d do in each case.

    Also a good idea is to sit down and categorize all your data on a scale of “how much my life would be over if I lost this”.

    Sometimes super-essential data can be very small. For example a list of things to do in case of untimely demies (a “digital will”) can be a single text file that can be easily stored (encrypted) with family members. EncryptPad is a cross-platform text editor that uses open, standard encryption and can use a simple password.

    If you need an extra form of backup media for ultra-essential data, Blu Ray optical discs are still an option. They are specifically designed for this and an USB optical writer is cheap.

    Last but not least, store your “cold” backups in proper storage enclosures. For HDDs I like Orico padded boxes, for Blu Ray’s use a “CD wallet”.